Conveyer for solid materials.



PATENTED JAN. 3, 1905.

A. L. PUTNAM. CONVEYER POR SOLID MATERIALS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 16, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

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v GONVEYBR POR SOLID MATERIALS.

APPLIGATIUN FILED AUG. 16, 1904.

SHEETS-SHEET z.

Patented January 3, 1905.

PATENT OEEICE.

ALDEN L. PUTNAM, OF NYACK, NEV YORK.

CONVEYER FOR SOLID MATERIALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of' Let-ters PQSGHYNO. 779,313, dated January 3, 1905.

Application filed August 16,1904. Serial No. 220,899.

To all whom it may concern;

Be itknown that LALDEN L. PUTNAM, a citi- Zen of the United States, and a resident of Nyack, in the county of Rockland and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Conveyer for Solid Materials, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to means for conveying solid materials.

The object of the invention is to provide for forcing such material as coal, grain, bricks, and small blocks of material of a general character through a pipe or duct to some predetermined spot. It is to be used to do the work for which chain-and-bucket or belt con-y veyers are now employed.

The conveyers now in use are objectionable in many respects. They requireareturn-line of' empty buckets or a belt, thus necessitating the construction of a double length of conveyer. They are as a usual thing restricted to work in a single plane. They cannot readily be adjusted at a plurality of points. They usually require a filler, and they are eX- pensive to install and require constant attention and many repairs to maintain them in working order. It is the object of my invention to provide a device which will accomplish the same work and will be devoid of the objections mentioned above.

The invention comprises one or more movable receptacles adapted to convey material to a discharge-duct and force' it into the duct successively from thereceptacles.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatel corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a front elevation showing a preferred embodiment of my invention, parts thereof being in section. Fig. 2 is a central vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 3 8 of Fig. 2, parts being broken away to show elements located'below that plane; and Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. l.

A represents the various portions of the frame of the machine, upon which is supported a hopper c, which is designed to belocated below the source of supply of material and to be fed therefrom by gravity. A series of receptacles o are designed to pass successively under the hopper and to receive. material therefrom. In each of the receptacles is a plunger c, which moves around with the receptacle to which it belongs and is designed to discharge the material therefrom when the receptacle comes under a pipe or duct d, which is designed for discharging the material from the apparatus. It will be understood that the duct CZ may be of any desired shape and character and that it may extend in any direction and may be provided with curves and bends, also with branches, so that it can deliver material in any desired manner. It can also bc made of flexible material, so as to deliver material first tolone place and then to another.

For convenience the receptacles o are shown in the form of perforations through a rotatable disk or table o'. These perforations are preferably open at both ends, the top end being closed during most of the operation by means of a plate o, mounted upon the frame A and carrying the hopper a and lower end of the duct (Z. The disk or table is designed to rotate about a central shaft Upon the lower. ends of the plungers are provided bearing devices, preferably in the form of rollers c, which travel upon the trackf. This track is provided with an inclined portion j, and a guard f2 is located near the side thereof to engage with the rollers c/ and keep them upon the track when the inclined portion is in operation.

It will be understood that the rotation of the table o is in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. l and that the track f is provided with an opening f3, in which the upper end of a piston r, provided with a horizontal projection ,f/, is adapted to rest. The upper end of this piston will normally be in the same plane as the upper surface of the track, so that the rollers o can roll onto the piston in an obvious manner. Mechanism is provided so timed that when a roller o assumes this position the piston will be elevated, carrying with it the plunger c which happens to be above it and forcing the material from its receptacle o into the duct d. The further rotation of IOO the table will cause this receptacle and plunl housing t on the frame A. The worm-wheel ger to be carried along under the plate a', cutting oif the material in the duct Z andl preventing its falling back, and the roller c will continue to remain in an elevated position (on account of the horizontal projection g upon the piston g) a sufficient length of time to prevent the lowering of the plunger until 1t has entirely7 passed the opening in the lower end of the duct. /Vhen this point is reached, however, the roller 0 will roll down the ineline f, guided when necessary by the guide f2, and the piston g is so timed as to immediately descend in position ready for the next roller c. 1t will be understood that the receptacles or perforations are filled by gravity as they come under the hopper and that the rotation of the table cuts off the material between the hopper and the receptacles.

It will`be obvious that the parts so far described may be modified through a wide range without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it will also be apparent that the means for operating the parts in the manner described may take many forms. One of these forms is illustrated in the drawings and will be described, commencing' with the power-shaft t. Upon this shaft is a pulley J, driving a belt z', which operates a pulley j upon a shaft which is journaled in the frame of the machine. The shaft is provided with two wormsl and l. The worm l is designed to operate a worm-gear m upon a shaft a, and upon this shaft is mounted a worm o, which has the usual grooves '0 through one half of its circumference; but for the other half of its circumference the grooves are made straight and extend in planes perpendicular to the axis of the shaft e. This portion of the grooves is indicated at 0. A cog-wheel p is mounted upon the shaft e, upon which the disk b rotates, as stated above. This cog-wheel is provided with a series of teeth p,\vliich are preferably conical in shape and mesh with the grooves o and o2 in a manner well understood. It will be obvious that the rotation of the shaft a will cause the tooth or teeth p which happen to be in engagement with the grooves o to travel in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3 until the portions 02 of the grooves come into engagement with the teeth, and during that portion of the rotation of the shaft n the teeth will remain stationary. The effect of this will be obvious. The wheel p and disk being rigidly connected together by the shaft e, the disk will be caused to have an intermittent rotation, the pauses in the rotation occurring when the straight portions o2 of the grooves 0 are in engagement with the teeth p. En gaging with the other worm, Z, upon the shaft is a worm-wheel q upon a shaft q, which carries a cam 1'. The cam fr is designed to operate upon a roller s, secured to the lower part of the piston g, which is guided in a o and cam fr are so timed by means of the intermediate operating devices and the setting of these two elements upon their shafts that during the pause in the rotation of the disk b, which comes when a wheel c' is directly over the piston g, the latter will be forced upwardly to the extent of its stroke.

The operation of this embodiment of the invention will be obvious. The device is driven from the shaft /t and more immediately by the shaft in. The disk 2)' is rotated one step by the wheel o, so that after a receptacle Z; is filled with material from the hopper a it will be caused to pass through a certain portion of a revolution, and then the wheel will stop. Another receptacle, which has been filled and precedes the one referred to, will at this period be directly above the piston g, and the latter will immediately commence to rise and force the corresponding plunger c upwardly in the receptacle or perforation 7), so as to discharge the material into the duct (Z. The worm portions of the grooves o! will then come into action and cause the disk to be rotated another step, which will carry the wheel c out upon thc projection /iy and onto the inclined surface f". As soon as the wheel c' lleaves the surface g' the cam fr will reach that portion of its stroke which will permit the piston to descend, and thelatter will drop to its original position ready to receive the next roller 0. The rotation of the disk, as indicated, carrying the receptacle Z away from the lower end of the duct 6E', will also cause the lower end of the duct to be closed by the surface of the disk b' and the upper surface of the material in the next receptacle The same sequence of events is then followed repeatedly, and it will be obvious that the successive operations will continually result in taking material from the hopper a and forcing it into the duct Z and also in forcibly discharging the material through the duct (Z no matter what the length of the latter and in spite of any curves or branches that may be formed therein. The duct CZ may be, as mentioned above, designed in any manner so as to deposit the material at any desired point without regard to direction or distance, and it may also deposit material in several places at the same time.

1t will be evident that adevice of the character set forth will be capable of many uses and that it can be substituted for chainand bucket or belt conveyers wherever they are commonly employed. Besides overcoming the objections mentioned in the first part of this specification it will be seen that it can be used for delivering coal to the hoppers of automatic stokers installed upon a coal-barge and could deliver the coal direct to the bunkers of steamships, that by the use of a iexible pipe supported by a hawser it could deliver coal from a Steamship direct to the bunk- TOO IOS

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absolutely necessary, but that horizontal :and

inclined forms may be readily devised, all coming within the scope of the present invention.

It will be readily seen that the device could be used for raising two or more kinds of material at the same time. This could be done by installing another hopper over the idle receptacle at the lower right-hand side of Fig.

t and another plunger and operating means under the next one above it, these two receptacles being idle when six receptacles are used as shown. -By having a large number of receptacles more than two kinds of material could be conveyed.

Having thus described my inventioml claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent- 1. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a movable receptacle, a plate thereabove having two openings, a hopper above one of said openings, a dischargeduct above the otheropening, and means for forcing material from the receptacle into said duct.

2. A conveyer for solid and granular material, comprising a series of rotary receptacles, a discharge-duct, and means for intermittently-and successively forcing shapeless masses of material from the several receptacles into the duct.

3. A conveyer for solid material, comprising arotary disk, a series of receptacles therein, open at the top and bottom, a plunger in each receptacle, and a vertical discharge-duct from the disk.

4. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a rotary disk having receptacles therein open at the top and bottom, a plate above the disk having two openings, a hopper in communication with one opening, a discharge-duct in communication with the other opening, plungers foi` the receptacles, means for intermittently rotating the disk, and means for successively reciprocating the plunger.

5. A conveyer for solid granular material,

comprising a hopper, a rotary disk having a series of open receptacles or perforations therein, a plunger in each receptacle, and a continuous discharge-duct located above the disk.

6. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a rotary disk having a receptacle therein, a plunger for the receptacle, a track for guiding the plunger, and means for reciprocating a portion of the track and the plunger.

7. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a rotary disk having receptacles therein, plungers in the receptacles, a track for guiding thev plungers, and a reciprocating device located at a point in the track. y

8. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a rotary disk, aseries of receptacles therein, open at the top and bottom, and a plunger in each receptacle; each plunger having a roller, a track for the rollers, and a reciprocating device located at a point in the track.

9. A conveyer for solid material, comprising a rotary disk, a series of receptacles therein, open at the top and bottom, and a plunger in each receptacle; each plunger having a roller, a track for the rollers, and a reciprocating device'located at a point in the track, said track having' an inclined portion adjacent to the reciprocating device.

10. A conveying device, comprising a hori- Zontal rotary table or disk having av concentric series of perforations therein, a vertical plunger in each perforation, means for intermittently rotating the table, and means for raising one of the plungers in its perforation when the table is stationary.

ll. A conveying device, comprising a hori- Zontal rotary table or disk having a concentric series of perforations therein, a vertical plunger in each perforation, means for intermittently rotating the table, means for raising one of the plungers in its perforation when the table is stationary, and means for permitting the plunger to be lowered when the table is given a rotary motion.

l2. A conveying' device, comprising a horizontal rotary table or disk having a concentric series of perforations therein, a vertical plunger in each perforation, means for interniittently rotating the table, means for raising one of the plungers in its perforation when the table is stationary, and means for permitting the plunger to be lowered when the table is given a rotary motion; said lastnamed means comprising a piston and means for intermittently operating the piston.

13. Inaconveyer, the combination ofashaft having a pair of worms thereon, a cam connected to one of said worms, a piston operatively connected with said cam, a rotating device connected with the other worm, a table operatively connected with said rotating device and comprising a series of receptacles, a plunger in each receptacle adapted to be brought into position immediately above said piston, and a track for supporting said piston.

14. In a conveying device, the combination of a shaft having a pair of worms thereon, a worm-wheel meshing with one of said worms, a cog-wheel meshing with said worm-wheel, a disk, a shaft rigidly connecting' said disk and cog-wheel, a series of receptacles in said disk, a plunger in each receptacle, a track for supporting said plungers, a piston located in said Atrack and adapted to reciprocate said piston,

and connections from the other of said worms to said piston for reciprocating it.

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l5. In a conveying device, the combination of a rotary disk havingI a series of receptacles therein, a plunger in each receptacle, a track for supporting said plungers, means for rotating said disk and automatically stopping it at predetermined periods, and automatic means for raising' one of said plungers when the disk is in a state of rest.

16. ln a conveying device, the combination of a hopper, a disk having a series of receptacles therein, adapted to be moved immediately beneath said hopper, a discharge-duct located above said disk, means for rotating said disk intermittently, a plunger in each re- ALDEN L. PUTNAM.

litnessesz J Aims ZABRIsKm, EDW. S. CALLAHAN. 

